


Worshiped

by Hadithi



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 08:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21096449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hadithi/pseuds/Hadithi
Summary: Rose Quartz and her team find statues that look like Obsidian.It hurts.





	Worshiped

They were worshiping Obsidian, and Rose Quartz was falling apart.

There were no words to describe her feelings as she stared up at the towering statue, the one that looked so much like the temple they rested in every night. Of course, humans didn’t live in this one. It wasn’t big enough, but even if it was, no one would have really lived there. It was too sacred.

It wasn’t fair. Rose Quartz shattered herself, rebuilt herself, from nothing with only her Pearl by her side. She had tried to escape, “Yes, My Diamond” and “Anything for you, My Diamond” and “My life for yourself, My Diamond” and it wasn’t enough. Somehow, she was being worshiped and adored again.

And by humans? Precious, beautiful, adorably simple humans? They had their own gods with their own stories! Why would they need to worship Obsidian? They had all kinds of beautiful, exciting tales for how the universe was made and why things were the way they were. Obsidian was just a big fusion! What was so exciting about that?

Well, besides everything. Rose did love fusion, and it was very exciting to her, but humans didn’t know that. All they knew was that a giant black and red woman showed up and swung a sword of lava at an incoming meteor and what was so exciting about that?

She was so relieved that they quickly went home from that small mission. So relieved that none of her friend felt the need to comment on the Obsidian statues they had faced. But the relief quickly faded into dread and her thoughts went back to the humans and their worship. She had to talk about it.

“How is this happening?” Rose paced, her feet padding softly along the temple floor. Her companions looked on from the warp pad with varying degrees of concern - from Amethyst’s eager curiosity to Pearl’s poorly concealed distress. “We were barely there! How do they remember us?”

Amethyst bounced a little. “Stories! That’s how I remember!”

“Stories?” Rose said, stopping to look at her. “What do you mean?

“Like the writings you read to me!” she said, beaming.

Rose frowned. “I thought they didn’t have writing.”

“They do now,” Garnet said. “And they had mouths before that. You know they like to tell stories, Rose. You’ve seen their temples. You know why they put them up.”

She shook her head. “That’s different! Those are religions, things they think and feel but it’s not… They’re not real. Not like Obsidian.”

“And Obsidian isn’t what they say she is,” Garnet countered.

Pearl stepped forward, hand coming to rest on her arm. “Rose, the humans forget things all the time! Just give it-”

“When they started bowing, _you_ said give it a century!” Rose wheeled on her. She tugged her arm back and stared her down. Pearl should know better! Pearl should know what it meant to her! And Pearl should know to be better and more helpful and supportive when they could never, ever talk about why she was really so upset. “You said not to worry! You said they’d all be dead!”

Pearl flinched back, eyes filling with tears. “They always have before, Rose.”

No. She was being Pink Diamond. She’s not Pink Diamond anymore, and Pearl was not her Pearl. She rested her hands on Pearl’s head, sighing. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t right. I didn’t mean to yell.”

Pearl was still cringing. “It’s okay. I was wrong.”

“That doesn’t mean I get to yell at you, Pearl,” Rose whispered. “You know… you know I hate to be worshiped like that. Even if it’s all of us. But that still doesn’t make it right for me to take it out on you.”

“But aren’t we basically as cool as their gods?” Amethyst giggled. “Maybe we should get a few statues. And free food!”

Rose knelt, shaking her head. “No, Amethyst. We may be stronger, but there’s so many things they can do that we can’t. They grow. Learn. Explore. Heal. They do it so much faster, all on their own. And they even make more of themselves somehow! Without hurting the earth!”

“I can ask about it,” Pearl suggested meekly.

“Thank you, but I should do it myself,” she said, smiling at her briefly. Pearl smiled back, and with that tension eased Rose turned back to Amethyst. “Humans are amazing. They shouldn’t think of us as gods. They should be free to live their own lives and make their own choices without us getting in the way.”

“It still doesn’t seem so bad,” Amethyst squeaked. “I think they like worshiping us! And it feels nice - like they all really love us! Like they think we’re really great!”

“You are really great,” Rose murmured, cupping the little one’s cheeks. “You don’t need a bunch of people following all your orders for that. Don’t you want them to be free like we are?”

“I guess,” Amethyst mumbled, but she leaned eagerly against Rose’s affectionate touch.

So young. So sweet. Such a… there had to be a word for it. Maybe she should make one up. Rose gave her forehead a gentle kiss and fell back on the stones with a sigh. Her mind searched for solutions to this extremely inconvenient problem. “We could destroy the statues.”

Garnet argued, “They’ll build new ones.”

“We could destroy the statues as Obsidian!” she gasped, delighted with her own idea.

“That would be very bad.”

Rose groaned, covering her face. “Garnet! Have some mercy. Good news, please!”

“You’ll put the pieces together on how new humans appear soon,” Garnet said. She grinned at Pearl. “You’re going to hate it.”

Pearl frowned. “It’s disgusting, isn’t it? Of course it is.”

Rose took a slow breath, eyes closed. “Okay. So, the statues are here to stay, but it’s fine. It’s fine because…” She whined as no answer came, and did what she always did when she was worried. She turned to Pearl. “Why is it fine?”

“Because…” Pearl hummed, her finger coming to rest on her lips as she thought. “Because it’s not you. It’s not us. The humans are already changing the story, putting new things into it. They’re coming up with the narrative, not us. This is just another hurricane or asteroid, and whatever divinity they make of it is up to them.”

She laughed. “Okay! Yes! That’s better!”

Pearl knelt, giggling as her face hovered over Rose’s. “And in a couple centuries we’ll go back, and she’ll have a dozen different names and all kind of crazy stories about her, and you’ll love hearing all of them and what it says about humans.”

“Pearl!” she squeaked. “Yes! So much better!”

Pearl grinned. “And you know, Rose, maybe it’s true. Maybe that’s another power humans have that we don’t. Maybe they really do have some kind of connection to a higher power. Maybe some of those stories are right, and they’ve figured out the secrets of the universe, and all it took was a little gem inspiration. Wouldn’t that be something?”

She gawked at her, eyes shining, then quickly leaned up for a kiss. Pearl giggled against her lips, pushing forward with a slight, tingling feeling that told Rose she wanted to fuse. So Rose reached up and tugged her down, merging into Rainbow on the cool temple floor with a giddy giggle. Bubbly. Silly. Happy. Ridiculous.

Garnet smiled. “All better.”

Rainbow Quartz sighed and nodded. “All better.”


End file.
